1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to lock and key, and more particularly to a magnetic lock mechanism comprising a magnetic lock cylinder associated with a magnetic key to provide more locking permutations and combinations. Thus, a locker tube having a plurality of through slots adapted for directly attracting magnet tumblers of a magnetic lock cylinder while being magnetically attraction effective.
2. Description of Related Arts
The conventional lock and key assembly, such as barrel lock, utilizes specific engagement or disengagement between a plurality of pin-tumblers in the lock cylinder and the key""s serration correspondingly to control the locking and unlocking functions thereof.
Virtually all mechanical locking devices are subject to tampering, possibly resulting from loss of keys, duplication of keys, and picking due to its limited mechanical structure and theory. Moreover, although many types of locking devices which are magnetically actuated or controlled are known in arts, they all bear a common drawback of failing to ensure all the magnet tumblers precisely returning to their locking position when the key is withdrawn from the keyway. Such unsolved problem is the main reason of why the magnetic lock cannot be commonly on sale in market and broadly utilized by the consumers.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic lock mechanism which avoids the drawbacks of easy picking and key duplicating of the conventional mechanical lock and key assembly by eliminating the serrations of the keys with a simply rod like magnetic key to associate with a mechanical lock cylinder by fitting into a circular keyway thereof.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic lock mechanism wherein the arrangement of the magnet tumblers, which is not limited to one or two opposing rows as in the mechanical lock and key assembly, can include any possible number of tumblers aligned around anywhere of the entire cylindrical surface of the key and keyway correspondingly, so that the present invention can provide more locking permutations and combinations to ensure the security function of a lock.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic lock mechanism wherein all the magnet tumblers inside the magnetic lock cylinder will be guided to rapidly and precisely return to their locking positions once the magnetic key is withdrawn from the keyway of the magnetic lock cylinder.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic lock mechanism wherein all the magnet tumblers inside the magnetic lock cylinder will be guided to rapidly and precisely radially move to their unlocking positions once the magnetic key is inserted into the keyway of the magnetic lock cylinder.
Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention provides a magnetic lock mechanism, comprising:
a magnetic lock cylinder for actuating a latch assembly, wherein the magnetic lock cylinder comprises
a lock sleeve, made of non-magnetic material such as brass, having an axial rotor hole and a plurality of tumbler sockets radially distributed on an inner surface of the lock sleeve;
a plurality of magnet tumblers, each of which has a north pole and a south pole at two ends respectively, being coaxially placed in the tumbler sockets respectively, wherein each of the magnet tumblers must be equal to or shorter than the respective tumbler socket of the lock sleeve;
a tubular lock rotor, made of non-magnetic material, being rotatably and coaxially fitted in the axial hole of the lock sleeve, the lock rotor having an axial through hole and a plurality of locking holes radially distributed through a rotor wall thereof, wherein the locking holes are adapted for being coaxially aligned with the tumbler sockets respectively and each of the locking holes has a depth shorter than a length of the respective magnet tumbler; and
a locker tube having a plurality of through slots, made of magnetic conducting material such as iron and steel, being fittedly disposed inside the axial through hole of the lock rotor to define a keyway therethrough, wherein the locker tube is adapted for attaching the magnet tumblers inside the rotor hole to move inwardly towards the locking hole until an inner portion of each of magnet tumblers is disposed in the respective locking hole and an outer portion of each of the magnet tumblers is disposed in the respective rotor socket so as to lock up the rotatable movement between the lock rotor and the lock sleeve; and
a magnetic key comprising a key body having a plurality of magnet sockets provided around the key body corresponding to the axial and radial positions of the magnet tumblers in the magnetic lock cylinder respectively, and a plurality of pill shaped magnets affixed in the magnet sockets respectively, wherein an outer end of each of the magnets has a magnetic pole equal to the magnet pole of the respective magnet tumbler, so that when the magnetic key is inserted into the keyway, the magnet tumblers are repelled radially outward into the tumbler sockets correspondingly, so as to unlock the magnetic lock cylinder to enable the lock rotor freely rotating to control the locking and unlocking of the latch assembly.